Hugh runs a web site called “Three blind men and an elephant” and gives us his opinion about the new Lumix GH5.

Hugh is a screenwriter and blogger. He lives in Willistown, Chester County, with his fiancé, her son and a dog. He is the father of two grown daughters, one living in Denver, and the other living in Seattle.

HDW : I am not so sure I agree with this comparison as the Sony FS7 Mk11 is a complete different animal.

Looking forward to my GH5 I am selling these items as I have no further use for them. The Sony XLR-A2M is as good as new and comes in its original box and has hardly been used, at £350 saving you over £200 on a new one.

One Camrade wetsuit for a Sony FS7, was £170 will sell for £100 plus postage (Never used)

This Sony FS7 field guide by Doug Jensen cost me £60 if you include postage from the states, its the 2nd edition which included some updated information, a great companion to any camera bag assuming you have an FS7.

Once again if you want any item send me an email to smallvideo@mac.com done on a first come first serve basis.

Cinemartin Loyal are a series of profesional HDMI monitors with unrivaled features at a fantastic competitive price of just €99

Available now is the new 7″ Loyal LT series of Cinemartin monitors co-developed to bring filmmakers, shooters, drone operators a professional video monitor, with HDMI video input featuring audio monitoring, histogram and a lot of video assist tools for you to get your perfect picture.

You can see from my photograph of the screen with the colour checker how accurate the screen actually is. I am very impressed with the screen accuracy so much so I did not need my £2,500 Sony 740 monitor on this shoot. For outdoor shoots the 7″ Loyal LT comes with a handy screen hood.

Cameras like the Lumix GH4 need monitoring in my opinion and the Loyal LT 7″ is just the job. It has a 12v input which I am using today as I prefer not to use battery unless I am outside and a Sony “L” plate on the back of the monitor.

The 7″ Loyal monitor feature a native 1920 x 1080 resolution, up to 16.7 million colours and 600 NIT’s (cd/m2) of luminance with a host of video assist features, unlike the 5.7″ this version does not come with SDI in and out which is not necessary if all you are using is a DSLR or in my case a DSLM, a stunning monitor at a stunning price. Please note the hood, battery slot and arm are €50 extra.

Panasonic are boasting “No crop factor” on the new GH5 but this is leading to major confusion. With the new GH5, it seems that we have the ability to now use the full width of the sensor as seen above while this was not possible on the GH4 giving a slight crop which is more noticeable using wide angle lenses also causing noticeable sensor noise. Because you are not cutting into the GH5 sensor it is less noisy compared to the GH4 by almost a stop, so like most of us I would refrain going above 800 ISO on the GH4 you can push the boat out to at least 1600 ISO on the GH5.

IMPORTANT…The micro 4/3 crop remains the same on the GH5 which is two times if comparing it to a 35mm full frame sensor.

During summer of 2017 we are getting a new firmware, upgrading the camera from 4K 150Mbps to 400Mbps (Switchable via the cameras menu) using the new V60 SD card association protocol (60Mbps). 4K up till now required a card to have a U3 rating with a 64G card costing about £23 but until Panasonic can give end users clarity on exactly what cards will cover the new speed of 400Mbps we are in the dark.

Like this:

It all started on the 15th of May 2015 when Lily decided to produce a drone for $500, but even back then Simon Beer had reservations which I printed on my blog. Fortunately for me I bailed out 6 months ago with a full refund. Just goes to show how the British pound has lost against the dollar since last year. Last year I was getting £330 for my $500 and today it would be £407. Lets be honest with the DJI Mavic and the Karma this drone did not stand a chance.

The Adventure Comes to an End

Dear Lily community,

Antoine and Henry here from the Lily team. When Lily set out on the journey to create a flying camera over 3 years ago, we were determined to develop and deliver a product that would exceed your expectations.

In the past year, the Lily family has had many ups and downs. We have been delighted by the steady advancements in the quality of our product and have received great feedback from our Beta program. At the same time, we have been racing against a clock of ever-diminishing funds. Over the past few months, we have tried to secure financing in order to unlock our manufacturing line and ship our first units – but have been unable to do this. As a result, we are deeply saddened to say that we are planning to wind down the company and offer refunds to customers (details below).

We want to thank you for sticking with us and believing in us during this time. Our community was the drive that kept us going even as circumstances became more and more difficult. Your encouraging words through our forums and in your emails gave us hope and the energy we needed to keep fighting.

Before we sign off, we want to thank all the people who have worked at Lily, who have partnered with us, and who have invested in us. Thank you for giving your all, nights, weekends and holidays, in the effort to deliver a great product.

After so much hard work, we are sad to see this adventure come to an end. We are very sorry and disappointed that we will not be able to deliver your flying camera, and are incredibly grateful for your support as a pre-order customer. Thank you for believing in our vision and giving us the opportunity to get this far. We hope our contribution will help pave the way for the exciting future of our industry.

Sorry chaps but having spoken to Panasonic Broadcast today they are adamant that the DVX200 is not going to get any 10bit upgrade, they don’t have nearly enough staff to start swapping boards out of the DVX200. Please remember the GH5 is already 10bit which will be fully enabled with a firmware upgrade.

From 4/3 Rumours….Source A: A source at Panasonic has told me they are looking at upgrading the DVX200 to include 10bit recording. This may involve a paid return and upgrade program, it hasn’t been decided yet. They are unsure if the internal boards and processor will need to be changed to allow this. Either way my source thinks an upgrade is very likley on the DVX200 as the GH5 is currently a lower priced camera with higher specs.

Source B: Two of my friends at CES heard from a Panasonic rep that the DVX200 is to get 10bit 4K internal recording, the rep did not say when or if it would be a new model or a paid upgrade, or any more details. Just that it would be available around the same time as it was for the GH5.

Of course not. Anything you ever read on those rumor sites is made-up hogwash. They’re about as accurate as a blind man on a shooting range, after he’s had a few drinks and his buddies have spun him around a few times to get him dizzy. You will never hear actual company news “leaked” to some rumor site. A multi-billion-dollar communications company issues press releases, it doesn’t “leak” insider info to some “rumor” site. I mean, think about it — that just isn’t how a major organization communicates with its customers!

Instead of the “FT” in their rumor name meaning “Four Thirds”, I find it more accurate to call them “Full of Turds”.

If there is any shred of a grain of a molecule of an atom of a quark of a string of truth to this whatsoever, it probably came about by some rumormonger asking some salesman “will you upgrade the DVX200 to 10-bit recording”, and whoever they asked said “well, I don’t think so, I mean, the hardware doesn’t allow it, they only way they could do that is you’d have to actually send the camera back to the factory and they’d have to install some different hardware and I’m sure that would cost a lot.” So the rumormonger took that and said “good news! The factory is going to upgrade the DVX200 to 10-bit!!!!” This is nothing more than the “fake news” being decried worldwide. They’re engaged in a race for headlines, and they don’t care about accuracy.

Philip Johnston got it right.

And reading those rumor sites is about as productive as jamming needles under your fingernails. Might be more fun, but ultimately it’s about equivalent in value for time spent.